08 Jun 2016

Vodafone and Ericsson bring briefcase sized base stations to London

Vodafone UK and Ericsson have introduced new mini base stations, which are housed in briefcase-sized radio to boost reception and help reduce road congestion. The small size of the radio units eliminates the need to deploy large cranes when installing mobile network cell sites, as engineers can simply carry the equipment up the stairs to a rooftop. This will speed up Vodafone’s extension of its 4G network and reduce the traffic congestion caused by the use of large cranes.

The mini base stations, which are part of the modular Ericsson Radio System for MNOs, can also support the latest mobile technology such as 4G+, which is also referred to as carrier aggregation. Under its 4G+ rollout, Vodafone is combining up to three mobile spectrum bands to provide customers in high-density areas with faster data speeds and improved voice quality both outdoors and indoors.

Vodafone and Ericsson have installed the first mini base station in Southwark, London, and will be rolling out the new system across the capital and in other urban areas. The two organisations are also working on faster versions of carrier aggregation, which allows Vodafone to combine its range of spectrum bands to provide higher average speeds to more simultaneous users and meet future capacity demands.

Following recent trials of three-way carrier aggregation on sites in London, which combine Vodafone's 800 MHz, 1.8 GHz and 2.6 GHz spectrum, download speeds of up to 240 Mbps have been achieved. The trial sites are now ready to deliver download speeds of up to 700 Mbps to meet future mobile data growth.